Aspiring director with a question for the DPs here

[Jeremy Russell]

This weekend I'm directing a short that I produced that I'm submitting to the student academy awards. We've got a crane, shooting on an aaton super 16 camera, and I'm really looking forward to it. This is my 2nd film, and I just want to know from different DP's point of views what they prefer more when shooting a film.

 

Do you like to have your shots storyboarded, so you know exactly what you are shooting and how to shoot it, or do you like to have some sort of say on the composition, movement, and coverage of the script. Basically, from a wide range of different DP's here, what are your experiences with directors, and on most occasions, how did you prefer to work.

 

Your comments are valuable.

 

Thank you,

Jeremy C. Russell

[DavidSloan]

Personally, I really like shooting for a director who has an intense personal vision, and knows exactly what he or she wants at all times. Everything from camera position, to how a scene should be lit...i.e., low key, high key, colors, etc...To me that is a sign of passion, and I like being around passionate people. The worst thing is working for some Joe Blow that has no vision and just wants you to shoot some master shots and OTSs. I also really love working with someone who is a cinema freak, because I am. A director that knows his film history, and theory, and spews plenty of Truffaut, and Godard, quotes :D That's when I suspect I might be working on something good. I think I've only shot 2 watchable films, directorially.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

I also prefer directors with a vision and a visual sense. I dislike filmschool-coverage or master, medium, CU for the sake of it. Storyboards also many times follow this formula and often can stifle the visual language rather than help it since everyone gets obsessed with "ticking off" the shots on the board instead of solving the scene in a different way.

[Nate Downes]

I don't like things fully storyboarded except for critically complex shots. I like working "off the cuff" adapting what is being shot to the conditions around. Set up a scene, and wake up that day to it snowing, go ahead and shoot, modifying the scene as needed to make the snow work.

[Laurent Andrieux]

As you are directing, I'd better put it this way : do you want to storyboard the whole script ? Would you like to work on this with your cinematographer ? A good cinematographer should accept both situations. If you do the storyboard all by your self, he/she might also study it and make eventual comments, consider eventual problems and then discuss it with you...

 

If you like better not to storyboard the whole thing, you might also find the camera locations on the set, by yourself or with his/her contribution.

 

These are the common situations I know. The most common one being working as a team, and even if the whole script is storyboarded, discussing it on the set is always possible.

 

The most important point is you to find a cinematographer that you get along well with, I think, and discuss all this with...

 

Good luck on your project !

[Ed Nyankori]

I like to work off the script and director's vision spatially and emotionally then working from there to build an image together. That can be by discussing other works, talking about the scene or drawing storyboards, shotlists beforehand or if need be onset. On the set, I prey to get the directors confidence so s/he can worry about the actors, blocking, how many candles to light, the inflection in a line,etc. That being said I offer ideas and hummbly (the best I can) take whatever is thrown at me. A film can ultimately survive the difference between a 12mm vs 18mm lens, a lighting hit, bad focus or a gratuitous dolly shot but it can't survive bad directing get on the same page with your dp and have fun.

[Jeremy Russell]

Some really great stuff here..

 

I've worked with this DP before, and we've got a good working relationship. One thing that I've learned is that as long as there is a mutual respect for each other as professionals everything flows smoothly, and often times you can read each others minds in a way if your pre production goes well and you are both sure of what you want out of certain aspects of the shoot.

 

Jeremy

[David Mullen ASC]

I believe in the importance of planning, whether that means shot lists or storyboards, as long as everyone recognizes that these are jumping off points and not carved in stone.

 

The times I've followed the storyboards most closely tend to be the ones I've drawn myself (as a DP) AFTER I've seen all the locations.

 

In the case of the final Spelling Bee in "Akeelah and the Bee" that we shot last week, you're talking about a 20 page scene with 1000 extras covering an all-day event with many montages, jump cuts, and intercuts with other locations -- all shot in a five day period. With hundreds of shots done completely out-of-order, careful planning was essential. Especially when due to budget reasons, you have "x" number of audience members on Day One and "x" number of kid extras on stage as spellers, and that number budgeted is different every day, so if you have a shot from Scene "x", you may be doing the angle where only five kids are visible but 100 audience members are in the background, so that goes on one day, but a reverse angle looking at the stage with 50 kids visible goes on another day, but the close-up of the main actor with only five kids visible in the b.g. and no audience goes on another day.

 

On a low-budget film with a short schedule, planning AND flexibility are both essential to getting good results. Since you don't have the budget to just carry special equipment or extra crew members every day, you have to know in advance if you need 360 degrees worth of track or a Weaver-Steadman head or an extra 12K HMI or a jib arm, etc. On the other hand, you also have to go with what nature throws at you and you also have to work around equipment breakdowns, etc.

 

Also, some types of scenes need more planning than others. A simple dialogue scene in an office or bedroom may not need much pre-planning and can be blocked on the morning with the actors and the coverage figured out on the spot, taking into account the time available.

 

However, I have noticed a tendency that pre-planned dialogue sequences tend to be more interesting visually than what you come up with on the day where you tend to revert to obvious standardized coverage out of fear that you won't cover the scene properly, whereas on paper like with storyboarding, you have TIME to consider and reject various approaches, perhaps finding some unconventional angle on the scene.

[Alberto Larios-Saavedra]

I believe in the importance of planning, whether that means shot lists or storyboards, as long as everyone recognizes that these are jumping off points and not carved in stone...

 

...However, I have noticed a tendency that pre-planned dialogue sequences tend to be more interesting visually than what you come up with on the day where you tend to revert to obvious standardized coverage out of fear that you won't cover the scene properly, whereas on paper like with storyboarding, you have TIME to consider and reject various approaches, perhaps finding some unconventional angle on the scene.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

A few years back, I went to see an exhibit of Picasso's paintings where they also exhibited sketches that eventually led to paintings. I was amazed at the amount of "planning or storyboarding" if you might, that Picasso did before he started painting on the canvas. Some of those sketches were even done on napkins! The paintings themselves were only slightly different from the sketches.

I guess it just goes on to show that visualizing and planning can be creative and money-saving tools.

[Leon Rodriguez]

For me it depends on how much preproduction time we've got. The ideal situation is for me to have the director for a couple of days, hang out, screen DVD's and talk about a cinematic vision. They all do inherently have one. Sometimes you've got to help a new director find his vision. I try, as best I can, to seek it out of him/her. Hopefully there is enough time to work out storyboards and shot list.

I will for sure storyboard difficult sequences. The more rushed the project the better prepared you have to be on the front end.

 

More impotant than a storyboard to me however, is what I call an "event list". Not a shot list per se, that's ultimately my job. I want the director to absolutely know what physically happens in every scene. The beats. I hate to be asking about that kind of thing when the directors attention should be on the actors.

 

"Can she see him from where he's standing?", "Does he take a drink before or after he shoots her?", "Isn't his facial reaction what's important here?" The storytelling stuff should be very clear. I get that stuff out of the way first. Those questions are written in the margins of my script before I even meet the director ususally. The visual stuff tends to find it's own way because we just think that way. But in the end, it's the storytelling stuff that really makes the film work and the story flow. That's gotta come from the director, however reluctantly. We can't lose sight of the fact that we are essentially storytellers.